Australian Policy Online

An initiative of Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University

Research & Evidence Base

New Research

2013 major accident investigation report

Owen P. Driscoll | National Truck Accident Research Centre (NTARC)

08 October 2013 | This report continues a series of longitudinal studies involving the tracking of a workforce of Australian heavy vehicle drivers involved in accidents, since 1998.

National mental health survey of doctors and medical students

beyondblue

08 October 2013 | This report finds that doctors reported substantially higher rates of psychological distress and attempted suicide compared to both the Australian population and other Australian professionals.

Australian suburban house building: industry organisation, practices and constraints - final report

Tony Dalton, and others | Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI)

07 October 2013 | This project was critically reviewed the scant literature on the volume housing construction industry in Australia and undertook qualitative research and modelling to explore issues of innovation and practice.

Skating on thin ice – difficulties faced by people living with mental illness accessing and maintaining social housing

Sam Sowerwine, Louis Schetzer | Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)

07 October 2013 | More work needs to be done to support people living with mental illness to sustain social housing tenancies, argues this report.

Australian hospital statistics 2012-13: elective surgery waiting times

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

04 October 2013 | In 2012-13, Australia's public hospitals admitted about 673,000 patients from elective surgery waiting lists (as either elective or emergency admissions).

Chronic disease management: the role of private health insurance

Amanda Biggs | Parliamentary Library

04 October 2013 | The paper provides background information on private health insurance arrangements, as well as the challenges emerging from increasing rates of chronic disease, and discusses the role of Broader Health Cover.

Defensive homicide: proposals for legislative reform - consultation paper

Victorian Department of Justice

04 October 2013 | This consultation paper contains a detailed analysis of the operation of defensive homicide, including an examination of the 28 defensive homicide convictions since the introduction of the offence, three of which involved a female accused.

Management of casual teachers

NSW Auditor-General's Office

03 October 2013 | This audit assessed whether the NSW Department of Education and Communities manages the supply, availability and performance of casual teachers effectively.

Cancer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia: an overview

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

03 October 2013 | This report brings together the most up-to-date data available from a wide range of sources to describe the status of cancer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia.

Report image: Indigenous teacher and children / lime

Solid partners solid futures: a partnership approach for excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood, education, training and employment from 2013 to 2016

Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment

03 October 2013 | This policy document calls for a partnership approach to improve early childhood, education and employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people.

The 43rd Parliament: traits and trends

Martin Lumb | Parliamentary Library

03 October 2013 | Drawing on the statistical tables featured in the 32nd edition of the Parliamentary Handbook, this paper examines the biographical details of the senators and members of Australia's 43rd Parliament.

A clash of cultures: hate speech, taboos, blasphemy, and the role of news media

Jane Sasseen | Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA)

03 October 2013 | This report examines the intense debate about the rights of countries or communities to restrict content viewed as blasphemous or objectionable in their cultures and how this is affecting the international news media landscape.

National Disability Insurance Scheme launch sites: projection of the number of young people in Residential Aged Care

Di Winkler, Libby Callaway, Simon Guthrie | Summer Foundation

02 October 2013 | This report estimates that there will be an additional 40 young people living in nursing homes in three designated National Disability Insurance Scheme launch sites by June 2016, and provides an estimate of the unmet needs and resources required for housing and support in the launch sites.

The South China Sea and Australia’s regional security environment

Leszek Buszynski, Christopher Roberts, (editors) | National Security College (NSC)

02 October 2013 | This collection of 10 essays from leading experts provides a range of perspectives on security in the South China Sea.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services report 2011-12: online services report - key results

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

01 October 2013 | This report examines health services, Aboriginal community controlled and non-community controlled health organisations, funded by the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.

Exploratory study of risks to stability in foster and kinship care in NSW

Marilyn McHugh | Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC)

01 October 2013 | Describing an exploratory study on various aspects and risks to stability in foster and kinship placements, this report finds that compared to foster care, risks to placement stability are more evident for kinship care.

In focus: crime and justice statistics, October 2013

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

01 October 2013 | This publication examines the relationship between disability due to a mental health condition and crime victimisation, and how this relationship varies across different sociodemographic groups.

On input-output tables: uses and abuses

Paul Gretton | Productivity Commission (PC)

01 October 2013 | This paper describes the uses and abuses of input-output tables, with the aim of improving future utility of what is an important but sometimes misused resource.

Commentary

Where now for the Greens?

Narelle Miragliotta, Robert Simms | Inside Story

08 October 2013 | The Greens face some of the challenges that effectively killed the Democrats, but important differences between the parties mean that history is unlikely to repeat itself.

MOOC: learning to learn

Digital Education Research Network 2 (DERN)

03 October 2013 | This review considers one of the few papers to date that describes an empirical research study on how people engage and participate in MOOCs.

“I’ve lost all hope that I can have a life here”

Emily Howie | Inside Story

01 October 2013 | Four years after the civil war ended, many Tamils have no expectation of peace or safety in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. This is what drives boat migration.

Audio

Vulnerability scanning to the rescue

Stilgherrian, Dick Bussiere | Corrupted Nerds

29 September 2013 | In this interview, Dick Bussiere, principal architect for Tenable Network Security in the Asia Pacific region, proposes a revolution in maintaining a data network’s security posture.

Independent in Indi: what happens now? (And why the Electoral Commission is suddenly under attack)

Peter Clarke | Inside Story

01 October 2013 | Peter Clarke talks to Brian Costar about why Cathy McGowan is likely to serve more than one term, why the Electoral Commission is under attack, and who should leader the Labor Party.

Richard Price on Academia.edu

Richard Price | Berkman Center for Internet and Society

16 September 2013 | Richard Price launched Academia.edu after encountering his own frustrations with the world of closed publishing as a student and researcher of philosophy.

Book Reviews

If content is king then distribution is King Kong

From Thomas Edison’s short films, distributed via the tiny Kinetoscope, through picture palaces, IMAX screens, 3D TV and into the era of YouTube, it’s fascinating to find that once again we are peeping at images on small screens. While the movie-going business remains strong, with annual global revenues at $34.7 billion, the splintering of screens develops apace with ever-smaller computer screens, tablets and smart phones.

Technology, Media and Asia

Some say mobile technology has contributed to an atomised society but Hjorth and Arnold provide an alternative view, writes Michael Keane.

Understanding young people and politics in a digital context

What counts as political engagement? Some hold voting to be the gold standard but in what ways are young voters emerging to be politically active, particularly in online environments? A new book by Aaron Martin raises some interesting questions.

A guide to open educational resources

JISC

27 March 2013 | This guide explains open educational resources (OER) and the benefits that creating, sharing and using OER can provide.Open educational resources (OER) are learning and teaching materials, freely available online for anyone to use. Examples include full courses, course modules, lectures, games, teaching materials and assignments. They can take the form of text, images, audio, video and may even be interactive.

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